


Waving Through A Window

by RavenpuffWrites



Series: Had To Have High Hopes [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ace Peter Parker, Bi Peter Parker, Gen, Mostly Fluff, Peter Parker Has Anxiety, Peter Parker is a Mess, Peter comes out to Tony, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony is trying his best to be a good dad, Trans Peter Parker, Worried Tony Stark, with a hint of angst at the end, with mild success
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-19 23:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18980707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenpuffWrites/pseuds/RavenpuffWrites
Summary: In the first three weeks of being mentored by Tony Stark, Peter comes out to him three different times. And then he promptly yeets himself out the window like the anxious disaster that he is.





	1. Mr. Stark... I'm Straight

**Author's Note:**

> Peter: Mr. Stark, I’m straight  
> Tony: … okay?  
> Peter: Straight up bisexual  
> Peter: *does a peace sign before he leaps out the window and swings away*

When Tony Stark showed up at Peter’s apartment, offered him an ‘internship’, and then revealed that he knew Peter was Spider-Man, Peter had kind of assumed the man had figured out all of his secrets. And even though they never really addressed the elephant in the room, or the fact that Peter was trans, he figured that it just had to have been something Tony had figured out. 

It wasn’t until they were designing Peter’s new Spider-Man suit that he realized Mr. Stark didn’t have a fucking clue. Which meant Peter almost outed himself when he realized the design was for a skin-tight suit and his first question was if there was going to be built in compression or something so it wasn’t super obvious and Mr. Stark gave him a look that said he had no idea what the fuck Peter was talking about. Luckily Peter was able to steer the conversation away from his slip-up before it could be discussed and managed to keep it from coming up again through the rest of their planning session. 

Tony  _ had  _ tried to bring it up as Peter was getting ready to leave, but Peter got out of that conversation by jumping out the window before he could even finish his sentence.

* * *

For the rest of the week, Peter is anxious to the point he actually feels sick over the idea that Tony was going to find out he was trans before he was ready for him to and all hell was going to break loose as a result. Even if Tony didn’t completely hate Peter for being trans, he was definitely going to have questions Peter didn’t want to face or have to answer. Either way, it seemed like he had no way to win. 

Tony must have been able to tell that there was something on Peter’s mind because every afternoon before Peter left, he always seemed to pause what he was doing and just gave Peter this look, as if he was waiting for him to say something, but he never actually brought it up. Peter was almost sure he had gotten through the week when just as he was getting ready to leave friday afternoon Tony said 

“Okay kid, spit it out. You’ve clearly had something on your mind all week, you might as well go ahead and say it before you’re gone for the weekend because you’re never going to be able to relax if you don’t.” 

Peter froze in place, his bag half slung over his shoulder, mind racing because  _ ‘holyshitheknowsheknowsMr.Starkknowsthatimtransholyshitfuckwhatdoidoicantjustsayitwhatifhegetsmadohgodohgod-’ _

“Peter? You still with me?” Peter jumped at the sound of Tony’s voice, which was louder than it had been just moments early, and Peter realized with a start it was because the man was now standing directly in front of him, arms crossed and one eyebrow raised questioningly, although if you looked close enough you could see the concern he was currently trying to mask. 

In his panic though Peter managed to miss all of this though, and without thinking he blurted out “I’m straight.” 

Tony only raised his eyebrow further, clearly confused, but before he could question Peter’s response the boy quickly added 

“Straight up bisexual.” 

The confusion on Tony’s face rapidly shifted to understanding, then amusement, and then worry as in Peter’s panic the boy turned and jumped out of the window before Tony even had a chance to say anything. 

All Peter could think about the entire way home was how much he had fucked up, and _‘holyshithowwashegoingtoreact? WasMr.Starkgoingtobemad? Wouldheloosehisintership? ohgodAuntMaywouldbesodisappointed. Hehadruinedeverythinganditwasallhisfaultbecausehecouldntkeepasecretwellenough’._

He was so lost in his thoughts that Peter didn’t even notice his phone buzzing in his pocket, and it wasn’t until he had gotten home and was safely hidden under the covers of his bed that he noticed he had six missed texts. Three were from Ned, confirming that Peter was coming over tomorrow to work on their project for school (and the new Lego set Ned had just got). One was from his Aunt May, letting him know that she would be working late (again) but she had left him something to eat in the fridge and she would try to be home as soon as she could. 

Two were from Mr. Stark, and Peter took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down before he opened them. And then almost immediately dropped his phone on his face in shock because:

** From: Mr. Stark (Iron Man!!) **

Me too kid :biflag: 

** From: Mr. Stark (Iron Man!!)  **

I’m proud of you Peter. 

Of all the reactions and scenarios Peter had played out in his head on the trip home, this was not one that he had planned for. Not only was Mr. Stark not upset, but he had also actually come out to Peter too. Even though he had absolutely no obligation to. 

It felt like a weight had been lifted off of Peter’s shoulders. If Mr. Stark could accept he was bi without even blinking, then just maybe… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to come out as trans. Maybe Mr. Stark would be able to accept that too without changing how he viewed Peter. 

Of course, first Peter had to figure out how to make himself say the damn words out loud.

 


	2. I'm the Ace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter: *wearing Tony’s hoodie* Hey Mr. Stark?  
> Tony: Yes Peter?  
> Peter: *biting his lip to keep from grinning* I guess you could say you have an Ace up your sleeve  
> Tony: ???  
> Peter: Cause I’m wearing your hoodie  
> Peter: It’s me I’m the Ace  
> Tony: … Okay  
> Tony: *realizing what Peter just said* Wait did you just-  
> Peter: *peace signs and leaps out the window again in panic*  
> Tony: *yelling after him* Why do you keep doing this?  
> Peter: *peace signs and leaps out the window again in panic*  
> Tony: *yelling after him* Why do you keep doing this?

The first day that Peter showed up at the tower sans a hoodie was the day that Tony learned the kid couldn’t thermoregulate very well ever since the spider bite. Tony tended to keep his lab at a lower temperature than the rest of the tower (especially when he hadn’t slept for a few days), meaning that within 10 minutes of arriving Peter was already starting to shiver just a little. But he refused to say anything to Tony until his mentor had turned to look at him and realized Peter was completely curled in on himself in an attempt to stay warm. 

Tony had forced Peter to take his hoodie so that he could warm up (and had F.R.I.D.A.Y. turn up the temperature for good measure). Since that day Tony had taken to leaving hoodies around the lab, by Peter’s station or near the door where he would walk in, just in case the boy happened to forget his own or just needed an extra layer to keep him warm while they worked. Peter had been a little hesitant at first to just take the hoodies without permission, but a cold front had settled over New York and he just couldn’t seem to stay warm enough, so when Tony wasn’t looking, he slipped on his hoodie. When there was no reaction from Tony, Peter relaxed just slightly. 

Since that day it had become a pretty regular occurrence for him to sneak on one of Tony’s hoodies as soon as his back was turned. Neither Tony nor Peter acknowledged this new arrangement for over a week, until one day not long after arriving, Peter was playing with the sleeves of Tony’s hoodie (this particular one just so happened to cover his hands). Out of nowhere, he thought of a joke that had him biting on his lip to keep from giggling out loud. Tony just so happened to look up in time to see the grin slowly stretching across Peter’s face, which led him to ask 

“Got something you’d like to share with the class, kid?”

Peter shook his head, biting down on his lip harder in an attempt to school his face back to some sort of neutral, but when Tony simply raised an eyebrow at him Peter realized it wouldn’t be so easy to get out of this. “It’s nothing really Mr. Stark, I just thought of something amusing is all.” 

“Is that all you’re going to give me? That it’s ‘something amusing’?” Tony questioned, now fully turned towards Peter so that he could see his reaction. 

“It’s really not that funny Mr. Stark, honest, it’s just-“ Peter started to argue with the older man, but then cut himself off with a sigh when he noticed the look on Tony’s face which clearly read he would stand there all day if Peter didn’t answer. Now chewing on his lip more out of nerves than anything else, Peter glanced at the floor and took a deep breath before he rushed out “You have an Ace up your sleeve, Mr. Stark.” 

Tony’s eyebrows furrowed together quizzically and noticing the confusion Peter pulled at the sleeves of the hoodie, adding “Because I’m wearing your hoodie. It’s me, I’m the Ace.”

Tony blinked slowly at Peter, at first not understanding his pun “... Okay”

Until suddenly it hit him and Tony’s eyes went wide as he asked “Wait did you just- “

Before Tony could finish his question, Peter felt a wave of anxiety wash over him, and without thinking he did a peace sign, distracting Tony long enough that he could run over to the window and jump out of it before he could be confronted. 

As he began crawling up the tower (because he didn’t exactly have his web shooters to swing away or anything), Peter managed to hear Tony cursing under his breath, and a single question of “Why the fuck does he keep doing that?”

* * *

Unlike the last time Peter came out, there wasn’t exactly an easy way for him to escape or way for him to hide until he got a text that said everything was okay. For one thing, he didn’t have his web shooters on him or any of his other stuff for that matter. Even his phone was still sitting in his backpack, where he had hastily stuffed it before running to the bathroom to switch his binder for a sports bra. He had nothing, and it wasn’t like he could just wait until tomorrow afternoon to collect his things because he needed them for school. 

And he couldn’t just hide on the outside of the tower or on the roof as he had initially tried to do, because it was the middle of winter and it was freezing outside for a regular human, let alone for someone like Peter. 

He did manage to tough it out for a few minutes, though not nearly long enough to calm his racing thoughts (or his racing heart for that matter). If anything, he was only becoming more anxious the longer that he waited, his anxiety coming up with increasingly horrible ways in which Mr. Stark might react, and eventually that mixed with the cold was enough to push Peter into crawling back down the tower and through the window. 

Peter was shivering a fair bit by the time he re-entered the lab, which Tony seemed to have expected because as soon as he had dropped to the ground a blanket was being wrapped around his shoulders, followed by an arm that guided him across the lab and to a couch, where another blanket was wrapped around him by a very concerned Tony Stark. Embarrassment bubbled to the surface overtop of Peter’s anxiety just long enough for him to push Tony away from him, muttering “I’m f-fine Mr. S-Stark. D-Don’t worry.” 

“Oh, you’re fine, are you?” Tony asked incredulously as Peter pulled the blankets closer around him so that his head was just barely sticking out. “You, the kid you can’t thermoregulate for shit and just spent 10 minutes outside wearing only a hoodie in below freezing temperatures, on the side of a tower where the wind is only going to make it feel even colder, you’re fine? You’re okay? Really? Is that why you’re shivering under two blankets enough that it’s making your teeth chatter? You can’t even move because you’re so cold but you’re fine? Really Peter?” 

Peter felt his cheeks turning red as Tony scolded him, and shifted further down in the covers so that the older man wouldn’t be able to notice the tears that had begun to fill his eyes. It was stupid, but Peter was almost more upset over the fact that Tony was more focused on the fact Peter had zero self-preservation skills than on the fact he had come out to him only seconds before he had left. Of course it made sense that Tony would care more about him being safe the anything else that had happened, and yeah maybe the fact he was asexual was less important considering he could have given himself hypothermia (which was kind of an overreaction if you asked Peter, because he certainly wasn’t  _ that  _ stupid to let his temperature drop that much, but Mr. Stark did have a point). 

“-rong kid?” Peter wasn’t aware that he had started crying until a shift in Mr. Stark’s tone drug him out of his thoughts and back to reality. By that point, the tears were falling too hard for him to stop. Mr. Stark must have also noticed that Peter was crying because a second later the blankets were being peeled back from Peter’s face, and Tony was asking him “What happened, Peter? Why are you crying? Are you hurt?” 

Peter shook his head, averting his gaze from Tony’s but otherwise not answering his question. He had already embarrassed himself enough just by crying in front of the man. What would he think if Peter told him the reason was just because he hadn’t got the reaction he wanted to coming out? 

Tony sighed, standing up, and for a moment Peter thought he was just going to walk away (and part of him hoped that he would, though a larger part felt crushed at the mere thought). Instead, Tony pulled back the blankets that surrounded Peter and settled himself beside the boy before wrapping the blankets around both of them. For a brief second, Peter froze, but when Tony put an arm around Peter he all but melted into his side, grateful for both the warmth of the older man and the comfort of the closest thing he figured he was going to get to a hug. 

Tony smiled slightly as Peter nuzzled into his side, tears still falling down his cheeks although they were starting to slow down now that he wasn’t sitting alone. He was also shivering a little less, meaning that he was starting to warm up again and Tony could stop worrying so much about the fact he had nearly frozen himself. 

The longer Peter stayed curled into Tony’s side the harder it was for him to keep his eyes open. His anxiety had slowly started to fade away, replaced by a deep exhaustion that always followed in its wake. Peter fought to keep his eyes open for a long while, but somewhere between his tears stopping and when he finally stopped shivering completely, Peter drifted off to sleep. 

Just before he fell asleep, he could have sworn he heard Tony say “Thank you for trusting me, Peter. I’m proud of you.” 


	3. Then Perish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter: I would sooner die than come out to Mr. Stark of my own free will   
> Ned: Peter n o   
> MJ: Then perish   
> Peter: guess I'll die then   
> Ned: P e t e r n o

In true Peter Parker fashion, it takes him nearly three weeks after realizing that Tony didn’t actually know he was trans before Peter finally comes out to him. And in true Peter Parker fashion, the way that he comes out to him is completely unplanned and born out of anxiety, panic, and his inability to keep a secret no matter how hard he tried.

It wasn’t even entirely Peter’s fault that Tony could tell from the moment he stepped into the lab there was something on his mind. If you thought about it, really Ned was the one to blame more than anything. After all, he was the one who had been bugging Peter non-stop the past few days to just get it over with and come out to Tony already. Granted he only pushed so much because he could see how anxious it was making Peter to not tell Tony but still. Peter was far more content to just stew in his anxiety for the rest of his life if it meant not having to come out and deal with whatever fallout came with that as a result.

Ned said that “wasn’t healthy”, and that Peter would “feel better” if he just “got it over with”. Peter responded that he would “rather die than coming out of his free will”, which led to MJ promptly telling him “then perish” (Peter still wasn’t entirely sure how or when she had discovered that he was trans, but like with most things when it came to MJ he had stopped trying to figure it out a long time ago).

But even despite his resistance, Peter couldn’t shake the idea of coming out to Mr. Stark. After all, it wasn’t like there was exactly a high chance that he’d get upset, given how well he took the first two times Peter came out. And it wasn’t like Peter didn’t _want to_ come out, because he did. Mostly.

It was just… really really terrifying. And Peter felt like he was about to explode from anxiety even just thinking about the possibility of coming out, hell even the idea of just saying aloud to himself that he was trans was too much for Peter to handle. How in the world would he ever be able to tell someone else? Let alone someone he admired and respected as much as Tony Stark.

Needless to say, Peter had zero desire to come out that Thursday afternoon, despite the fact his friends (and his anxiety) hadn’t let the idea drop from his head days. As typical Parker™ luck would have it though, it seemed the world (or in this case Mr. Stark) had other plans.

At least this time he was wearing the suit before the questioning started. They had spent most of the afternoon working on installing some minor upgrades to it, making any repairs that needed to be made after almost three weeks of fighting crime in it. Peter had almost forgotten entirely in those few hours about his conversation with Ned, until he paused to check his phone before leaving and was hit with the anxiety he had somehow been managing to avoid up until that moment.

Of course Tony chose that exact moment to look up from his work at Peter, and he frowned, concerned, the second he registered his panic. “What’s going on kid, is everything alright?”

Peter jumped at the sound of Tony’s voice, whipping around to face him with wide eyes, although he tried to hide his panic behind a nervous laugh and a stumbled reply “What? No, no, everything is great Mr. Stark don’t worry. Totally and completely fine I promise, nothing at all going on here whatsoever.”

Tony raised an eyebrow at Peter. “Really? Because it kind of seems like there’s something you need to get off your chest.”

_Shit._ That was an opening Peter couldn’t exactly ignore, now could he? Before Peter could even fully register what he was saying he found himself blurting “Well there are my breasts.”

Peter’s anxiety began screaming at him the second the words left his mouth, yelling at Peter to _‘Shutupshutupyoufuckingidiotbeforeyoumakethingsworse’_. Which Peter might have considered doing if it wasn’t for the fact Mr. Stark was still staring at him with an expression Peter couldn’t quite read, but it vaguely seemed confused so he felt like he had to explain

“That’s what I need to get off my chest. Just gotta,” Peter mimed ripping his boobs off his chest, gesturing to the window as he finished “yeet them out the window.”

Tony shook his head, an amused smile curling at the edges of his lips despite the exasperated look on his face. “Kid you really need to work on coming out.”

“Bold of you to assume I plan to tell anyone ever again in my life, Mr. Stark.” Peter deadpanned, and Tony’s face instantly clouded with concern

“Peter no…”

Panicking, Peter grabbed his bag off the floor, and with a nervous laugh and a soft “yeet”, he jumped out of the window before Tony could stop him.

Again.

At least he was wearing his suit this time.

* * *

Any anxiety Peter had over coming out to Tony disappeared the moment he noticed the smoke in the sky. Before he could even see where it was coming from, he could smell it, and without thinking he changed his course to head towards the source, thinking that maybe Spider-Man could be of some assistance if anyone needed help.

It was only too late that Peter realized exactly where the smoke was coming from, and his heart dropped to his stomach as he remembered: _May would be asleep right about now._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I really hoped that you enjoyed this fic, I had so much fun writing it, Peter truly is such an amazing character to write.   
> This fic is actually the first in a series of stories I have planned following Peter, I'm sure the end of this chapter gives some hints on exactly where the series might be going. I have quite a few things in store for Pete, so if that sounds like something you're interested in reading make sure to subscribe to the series,   
> I don't know exactly when the next update will be (as I've been struck with a cold which is fun), but I'm hoping by next week at the latest. It'll be a direct follow-up to this fic, so if you want to see how that turns out make sure to stick around. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and for all of the lovely comments I've gotten so far, they truly make my day so thank you. 
> 
> If you have any questions, or just want to yell at me, feel free to use the comments, or to hop on over to my tumblr @RavenpuffWrites


End file.
